Kamiyama – 5. A goal-keeper will ultimately be measured on his saves and mistakes. Kamiyama was untested for 85 minutes of this game, but when called upon he was totally wrong-footed by a swerving shot, and then embarrassed by a looping shot which somehow managed to be always out of his reach.

Mishima – 6. Was our main route of attack by the end of the game, but was just missing the final product with his crossing. It was his poor cross from a short corner which didn’t get past the first man and led to their counter. Late on he then totally overhit a cross as 5-6 players poured forwards to get a goal. Kept running, and will hopefully setlle down a bit.

Abe – 6. I thought he was poor in the first half, giving away balls easily and straight into touch, but kept on fighting and was much better at the end of the game. I still wonder if Takeda might be a better option, and wouldn’t be surprised to see them rotate for the game against Kyoto.

Tsutsumi – 7. Some people around me were accusing him of ball-watching at times, but I thought he did ok. Could do little about the counter-attack goal, unlucky not to score, and generally limited chances when Kumamoto had the ball.

Park – 7. I thought he was our best player in the first half. Went hard into tackles at exactly the right times, and in exactly the right places. Made me even more sure at times that he should be trying to do it in midfield to let others play, but do we have anyone else to play centre-back if he does?

Nakahara – 6. Was getting frustrated by the end, but was at least trying to match the Kumamoto aggression. Had a clear plan to try and switch the play which worked well at times, but was dropping a little too deep to hurt the opposition. Switching the play in our own half gives time to re-group, if he was able to pick out wingers and full-backs in the opposition half with diagonal balls then we’ll start getting somewhere.

Jogo – 6. The one player who was trying to get the ball down in the first half and had some great touches into space, but playing in the middle of the pitch (especially alongside Nakahara and Morimura) he needs to be more involved, and be a bigger physical presence.

Morimura – 5. Rabbit in the headlights. To be fair to him he was playing in a role which he isn’t used to, and was asking him to step up and fill some space, but he didn’t make that step up. If he doesn’t start being the player we need him to be then I don’t know what will happen this season as we don’t really have anyone else.

Sakata – 7. The one player who was tracking back from attack and trying to match the aggression in midfield, unfortunately there was too much work for him to do on his own. Scored a decent goal with his chance.

Hirai – 6. Looks like a player when he has the ball at his feet in the penalty area, and one dribble along the byline was great, but the tactics we are playing now needs him to help out a bit when we don’t have the ball; a midfield 3 of Nakahara, Jogo and Morimura needs the forward to come and help get the ball back at times.

Punosevac – 6. I was interested to see that in the J-League digest he lists his key strength as heading. He did some nice close control, and link-up work in the box, but his heading was less effective. Had fouls given against him for being a foreigner; I’d love to hear from the referee what the reason for some of his fouls were. One seemed to be for ball-juggling in the box, and another for being tall.

Ishizu – 7. Looked like he might win the game for us when he first came on with some great running with the ball, and trying to pass to team-mates. If he can keep running when he doesn’t have the ball and try to help in defence then he is potentially the best player in the division, if he acts like an elementary school kid and expects someone else to get the ball for him then he is difficult to play as anything apart from a luxury player (and we seem to have 4-5 of those already).

Kanamori – 6. Like a Diet version of Ishizu. Offers lots of the same sort of thing, but in a slightly weaker version. I liked the yellow card he picked up, it did at least show he wasn’t going to go down without a fight, and wanted to help defensively.

Ushinohama – 5. Didn’t really do anything once he came on the pitch, albeit with very little time to change the game.